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Thursday, January 31, 2013

Everyday I walk into our master closet and love all the space. However, the lack of color and design in there doesn't make me want to stay very long. I get dressed and get out. I dream of what it could look like and all the woodenshelves and compartments. It may sound a little weird, but sometimes I long for built-ins for all my shoes and an organized tie rack for hubby. It would actually be nice to have somewhere to sit and put on my shoes too. With so many other spaces to do in the house, our master closet isn't high on the list by any means. In the meantime, here are some closets that sparked my interest and get my hopes up for the future.

Monday, January 28, 2013

Since this is a nursery, I knew I wanted some cute prints. There were several out there on Etsy and other websites but I wanted to try making my own. This way, I could customize them with the images and colors I wanted.With the help of hubby and Photoshop, here's what I came up with.

I pulled the colors and animals from the bedding. Of course the orange had to be in there. I printed them out and put them in my DIY matted frames.

Now that I'm starting to play around with Photoshop, I can make the art in this room much more personal. I've got a few other ideas in mind.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Since I'll be putting prints in the nursery, I figured I would need some frames. On a trip to Ikea, I made my way to the frames section. Before going in I had already made my mind up that I would get the Ribba frames. Before getting to the Ribba, I saw the Nyttja. It was the same size as the Ribba I was going to get, but they didn't have the mattes in them. Mattes are a major thing for me. I just think they make a photo look better in the frame. They were also lighter in weight which was a good thing since they would be hanging over the crib. They were a few bucks cheaper and I was thinking of the money I would save. I thought for a few seconds and decided I can make my own mattes. How hard could it be? I grabbed the frames and checked out.

On the way home I went to the dollar store and got some poster board for my mattes. At home, I laid out my supplies.framesposter boardexisting matte from another frameexacto knife or scissorspencil

Start by opening your frame package. Remove the paper insert from the frame. This will be the size of the outside of your matte. Trace the paper onto the poster board and cut out.

I used an existing matte as a template for the center opening. Trace the inside rectangle and cut out. Remember to trace on the side that will be facing in. Don't want to see pencil lines on your finished side.

Monday, January 21, 2013

Now that the nursery walls are painted, I wanted to add a little something to them. I've always wanted to do a striped wall and here's my chance. I was noticing in my pinned nurseries, this one and this one had striped walls. I thought about stripes all over but decided to go with a striped accent wall instead.

Here's the room with just the gray paint, Behr Silver Sateen. Entrance into the nursery.

Closet wall

This is the wall where the crib will go. I wanted to make this the accent wall.

I chose to go with a simple white stripe to keep the room neutral since I will be adding bright colors later. The color I chose is Behr Snow Fall. I started by measuring my stripes. The wall is eight feet tall making it 96 inches but I wanted the stripes to be the same width the whole way down. Taking away the baseboard, that left me with 93 inches of wall to work on. I decided I wanted seven stripes, three white and four gray ones. That made my stripes 13.28 inches wide each.

Starting at the ceiling, I marked 13.28 inches down and made a mark. I did this about every 12 inches all the way across the wall for my first stripe. I repeated this step all the way down the wall until all stripes were marked off. Using a yard stick and level, I connected my marks across. After the lines were drawn, I taped them.

Remember to tape the side of the stripes where the new color meets the adjoining wall. You want a clean line there too. I used a credit card to smooth out the bubbles in the tape .

Now for painting those stripes! I wanted a clean, crisp line when I removed the tape. I have seen several methods for doing this. The first one involved painting the edge of the tape with the base color to seal the edge. Once dry, paint with your stripe color. This is supposed to keep the stripe color from bleeding underneath the tape. Seems like a good way but I didn't want to pull out the first color. The second method was the dry brush method. It involves taking a nearly dry brush with very little paint on it to lightly coat the edges of your tape with the stripe color. Sounded easy enough so this is the way I chose.

After the edging was dry, I filled in with a six inch roller. The gray still showed a little through the white, so I applied two coats. While the second coat was still wet, I took off the tape. Let's say I was holding my breath to see some seepage but I was pretty amazed that my lines were perfect. No bleeding!

I'm in love with the stripes. I couldn't be happier with how they turned out. I must admit though, it was challenging. The measuring part was a little tricky because our walls and ceiling don't seem to be perfectly straight. I'm kind of glad I chose to only do one wall. I would have been nutty by the end of it.So have you painted stripes? Did you find it hard? What were some tricks you used?

Friday, January 18, 2013

We've decided on gray walls for the nursery. After going through so many samples of blues and grays, it was hard for me to find the perfect blue gray that I wanted. I saw several examples of colors I liked but once I saw them in person, they weren't quite right. They were either too blue, too purple, or too green. So I went with my second choice of gray. I chose to go with Silver Sateen from Behr. It's a light gray that will be the perfect backdrop for the bright colors I want to use in the room.With that said, here's how the plan has changed from previous versions. I was able to find an orange chevron rug from Urban Outfitters that I love. Since it was on sale, I decided to grab a few more colors just to have a few options to play around with. Sometimes I can't resist a sale. If they don't work for the nursery, they may end up somewhere else in the house. After making a list of all the things I want in the room, the large Hemnes dresser is no longer an option. It was just more money than I was willing to pay. I have now decided on the smaller, three drawer option.

Paint - Behr Silver Sateen

Rug - Urban Outfitters

Chair - Ikea

Pouf - Target

Bedding - Target

Crib - Target

Dresser - Ikea

Shelf - Ikea

Art - will be DIY

Chandelier - will be DIY

Here is the same setup but with a gray rug and orange pouf. I like the rug, but it may be too much gray and fall flat into the floor.

Monday, January 14, 2013

It's time to start on little man's room. I'm so excited to start. I have a blank canvas and my head is overflowing with ideas. I've been looking at so many nurseries online and see so many things I like. I've put together a few boards on things I wouldn't mind having in the space.

I want to keep the backdrop pretty neutral so I can change things around in the future. I started with a blue gray. I know he won't stay a baby long and this will give me the option to leave the wall color as he grows. The accent color I want to use throughout is orange. I've been seeing it around and was just drawn to it. In this board I used an orange stripe rug to bring the orange to the floor. I was able to find bedding in Target that had orange in it. I would like to find an orange drum chandelier for a reasonable price but I know that may be a DIY project. Dark furniture is a must. To me the espresso just looks more manly and rich. The crib is from Target, the dresser is the Hemnes from Ikea, and the chair is the Poang from Ikea. To bring some gray into the room, I thought this floor pouf from Target would be a nice touch. I'll keep the curtains white and simple. Most of the art will probably be DIY.

In the second board, I swapped the orange rug for a blue one. I also used an orange pouf instead of gray. I like this version, just not sure if I love the blue as much as the orange.

Third board, I put a neutral on the wall. A light tan can go with any color scheme so I thought I'd try it out. I love the idea of an accent wall so I threw the blue and white stripes on the wall behind the crib. This would bring a focal point and I've always wanted to paint stripes on the wall. Not sure about the rug option on this one. I don't want too many patterns fighting each other.

Fourth board uses the same tan walls but bringing the blue and white stripe rug back down to the floor. It's the same setup as board two, but with tan walls.

Which look is your favorite? I'll probably mix some things from each of the boards and change things up as I go along. I've been known to change my mind a lot.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Can you believe it's 2013? It's like we blink and time flies right by. As I start the new year, I first have to reflect on the things we accomplished in our home in 2012. I think we made some good progress because I wouldn't call any room complete. I had planned to finish several rooms. One of which was the dining room.

I started by adding a new rug from Ikea. After that, I put some curtains on those naked windows. The chandelier was changed to a new nickel one, I made a sunburst mirror, and finally re-arranged the table to make room for a future buffet to go under the mirror. It's a room that isn't used much but I like it to at least look good.

The living room was a blank slate but I think we got it going now.

A pair of accent chairs were the start of this room. I picked this pair because they picked up most of the colors we were using throughout the downstairs. I eventually added curtains to match the ones from the dining room. The room became a little more defined with a new sofa. Next to the sofa is a cute little red table that I found at none other than Target. The last step was to add some more color to the room. Since the main accent color in the house is blue, the wall behind the sofa became blue. It refreshes the space and sets it apart from the adjoining dining room. There are still some more pieces to add this year like art behind the sofa and a rug but I feel better that the room isn't empty anymore.I'll say the biggest transformation in 2012 was the kitchen.

The first change was adding a tile backsplash. It gave the kitchen a little character. The major change was painting the cabinets. We went from light to dark within a week and the difference is crazy. We are still marveling at the change. It's like we got a new kitchen for a fraction of the price. The last change to the kitchen was the lights. We changed out the two boxy florescents for recessed lights and pendants over the island.One of the rooms that wasn't touched was the guest room.

We were holding off on buying furniture for the space not knowing if we were truly going to have overnight guests rolling through. But in 2012 we learned this room would become a nursery! So excited for the paint to go on and bring new life into the room.

There were more projects throughout the year that I loved.

The master bathroom went from blah to better with a coat of blue paint.

Some smaller projects included making paper mache letters, paint chip art, DIY West Elm Spheres, a monogram step stool for my daughter's room, and coasters from tiles and scrapbook paper.I definitely look forward to what 2013 has in store. There's always room for improvement. There are plenty more rooms to go and more tweaks to make.